In a hospital or clinic, since the detection of intestinal peristalsis is applied to monitor patients' physiologic conditions after surgery, doctors or medical workers are required to regularly monitor patients' intestinal motility for tracking recovery of patients and observing for any side effects of surgery.
The current non-invasive intestinal peristalsis detecting device has several defects, including limitation to local detection only, requirement of specialized operators, and high cost. Currently, the options for clinical intestinal peristalsis detecting method include stethoscope diagnosis and ultrasonic detection. Japanese Patent No. JP 2000262523 discloses an electronic stethoscope attached to a patient's abdomen to receive sonic waves. The sonic waves can be converted by an analog/digital converter to acquire peristalsis information, based on which the medical diagnosis is made. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,955 discloses a technique of abdominal ultrasonic wave. After the patient orally ingests micro particles, which can reflect ultrasonic wave, the device receives and processes the reflected ultrasonic wave for display. Doctors can observe the image on the display to determine the status of intestinal peristalsis.
The stethoscopic observation is not a quantification diagnosis. The ultrasonic wave is displayed to provide information about the intestinal peristalsis. Both of these techniques require contacting the detecting area for detection and need qualified medical personnel to perform procedures and assess results. Patients face risk of infection due to contact with the detecting area. Although the ultrasonic wave instrument can analyze the reflected ultrasonic wave to determine the status of the patient's intestine, the instrument is very expensive and cannot provide long-term monitoring. Moreover, because the image of the ultrasonic wave instrument needs to be assessed by a qualified doctor, the quality of the image will affect the accuracy of the assessment.